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Random alpha generator



 
 
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  #1  
Old April 27th, 2005, 08:45 PM
bj
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Default Random alpha generator

to have 1200 unique 2 letter combinations you need about 35 unique characters.
this normally would not be done with alphnumeric because of the similarities
between 0 Zero and the letter O and 1 (one) and the letter I Combining lower
case and upper case letters is a possibility.

From your title is sounds as though you want to gererate them randomly
rather than just assigning them.
What I would to to generate them and get them into a random order is to
first enter in a column (A?) a,b,c,...X,Y,Z (one letter per cell). I would
fill this column with copies down to 2704. I would then copy this column to
the next column (B?)
and in a third Column (c?) enter in C1 =A1 & B1, and copy this cell down to
C2704
In a fourth coulmn (D?) I would enter =Rand() in D1 and copy this down to
D2704
then selecting Columns ABCD and sorting by Column D You would have in column
C a list of 2704 unique 2 letter identifiers. Note I would select all and
paste values over the top of the calculations.

If you can't use the lower and upper case characters, you will need to
establish what your needed unique characters are and just adjust the limits
of he cells by whatever number of characters you end up with



"DBuche" wrote:

I need a way to generate over 1200 unique two letter combinations. I've been
reading past posts that explain ways to use the MATCH and VLOOKUP functions
to convert numbers to text, but have not found the solution yet. Any help
would be greatly appreciated.

  #2  
Old April 27th, 2005, 10:20 PM
DBuche
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Posts: n/a
Default

Thanks for the fast response bj. I tried your method and though it taught me
a lot it didn't solve my problem. Perhaps I didn't state it clearly. I need
1200 random two letter combinations, no numerics. Your method produced a
random but repetitive list of the same two characters; AA, BB, CC. etc. Many
instances of AA, BB, etc, were generated using your method.

"bj" wrote:

to have 1200 unique 2 letter combinations you need about 35 unique characters.
this normally would not be done with alphnumeric because of the similarities
between 0 Zero and the letter O and 1 (one) and the letter I Combining lower
case and upper case letters is a possibility.

From your title is sounds as though you want to gererate them randomly
rather than just assigning them.
What I would to to generate them and get them into a random order is to
first enter in a column (A?) a,b,c,...X,Y,Z (one letter per cell). I would
fill this column with copies down to 2704. I would then copy this column to
the next column (B?)
and in a third Column (c?) enter in C1 =A1 & B1, and copy this cell down to
C2704
In a fourth coulmn (D?) I would enter =Rand() in D1 and copy this down to
D2704
then selecting Columns ABCD and sorting by Column D You would have in column
C a list of 2704 unique 2 letter identifiers. Note I would select all and
paste values over the top of the calculations.

If you can't use the lower and upper case characters, you will need to
establish what your needed unique characters are and just adjust the limits
of he cells by whatever number of characters you end up with



"DBuche" wrote:

I need a way to generate over 1200 unique two letter combinations. I've been
reading past posts that explain ways to use the MATCH and VLOOKUP functions
to convert numbers to text, but have not found the solution yet. Any help
would be greatly appreciated.

  #3  
Old April 27th, 2005, 10:34 PM
bj
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Posts: n/a
Default

Mea culpa
I forgot to write down one very important step
after copying column A to Column B, SORT COLUMN B Now after the steps in
column C you will have unique identifiers.

"DBuche" wrote:

Thanks for the fast response bj. I tried your method and though it taught me
a lot it didn't solve my problem. Perhaps I didn't state it clearly. I need
1200 random two letter combinations, no numerics. Your method produced a
random but repetitive list of the same two characters; AA, BB, CC. etc. Many
instances of AA, BB, etc, were generated using your method.

"bj" wrote:

to have 1200 unique 2 letter combinations you need about 35 unique characters.
this normally would not be done with alphnumeric because of the similarities
between 0 Zero and the letter O and 1 (one) and the letter I Combining lower
case and upper case letters is a possibility.

From your title is sounds as though you want to gererate them randomly
rather than just assigning them.
What I would to to generate them and get them into a random order is to
first enter in a column (A?) a,b,c,...X,Y,Z (one letter per cell). I would
fill this column with copies down to 2704. I would then copy this column to
the next column (B?)
and in a third Column (c?) enter in C1 =A1 & B1, and copy this cell down to
C2704
In a fourth coulmn (D?) I would enter =Rand() in D1 and copy this down to
D2704
then selecting Columns ABCD and sorting by Column D You would have in column
C a list of 2704 unique 2 letter identifiers. Note I would select all and
paste values over the top of the calculations.

If you can't use the lower and upper case characters, you will need to
establish what your needed unique characters are and just adjust the limits
of he cells by whatever number of characters you end up with



"DBuche" wrote:

I need a way to generate over 1200 unique two letter combinations. I've been
reading past posts that explain ways to use the MATCH and VLOOKUP functions
to convert numbers to text, but have not found the solution yet. Any help
would be greatly appreciated.

  #4  
Old April 27th, 2005, 11:02 PM
bj
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

If you get two response I apologize. I thought I had answered this before.

I made one big mistake in my suggestion You need to sort column B before
going onto the steps in column C. With this added step you wont get the
multiple copies of the same combo.

"DBuche" wrote:

Thanks for the fast response bj. I tried your method and though it taught me
a lot it didn't solve my problem. Perhaps I didn't state it clearly. I need
1200 random two letter combinations, no numerics. Your method produced a
random but repetitive list of the same two characters; AA, BB, CC. etc. Many
instances of AA, BB, etc, were generated using your method.

"bj" wrote:

to have 1200 unique 2 letter combinations you need about 35 unique characters.
this normally would not be done with alphnumeric because of the similarities
between 0 Zero and the letter O and 1 (one) and the letter I Combining lower
case and upper case letters is a possibility.

From your title is sounds as though you want to gererate them randomly
rather than just assigning them.
What I would to to generate them and get them into a random order is to
first enter in a column (A?) a,b,c,...X,Y,Z (one letter per cell). I would
fill this column with copies down to 2704. I would then copy this column to
the next column (B?)
and in a third Column (c?) enter in C1 =A1 & B1, and copy this cell down to
C2704
In a fourth coulmn (D?) I would enter =Rand() in D1 and copy this down to
D2704
then selecting Columns ABCD and sorting by Column D You would have in column
C a list of 2704 unique 2 letter identifiers. Note I would select all and
paste values over the top of the calculations.

If you can't use the lower and upper case characters, you will need to
establish what your needed unique characters are and just adjust the limits
of he cells by whatever number of characters you end up with



"DBuche" wrote:

I need a way to generate over 1200 unique two letter combinations. I've been
reading past posts that explain ways to use the MATCH and VLOOKUP functions
to convert numbers to text, but have not found the solution yet. Any help
would be greatly appreciated.

 




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